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| Author | Juan RuizArchpriest ofHita |
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| Original title | El libro del buen amor |
| Language | Medieval Spanish |
| Genre | mester de clerecía |
| Publisher | None |
Publication date | 1330; expansion completed 1343 |
| Publication place | Spain |
| Media type | Manuscript |
The Book of Good Love (Spanish:El libro de buen amor), considered to be one of the masterpieces ofSpanish poetry,[1] is a pseudo-biographical account of romantic adventures byJuan Ruiz, theArchpriest ofHita,[2] the earliest version of which dates from 1330; the author completed it with revisions and expansions in 1343.[3]
The work is considered as the best piece in themedieval genre known asmester de clerecía.
The Book begins with prayers and a guide as to how to read the work, followed by stories each containing a moral and often comical tale.
The book contains a heterogeneous collection of various materials united around an alleged autobiographical narrative of the love affairs of the author, who is represented by the episodic character of Don Melón de la Huerta in part of the book. In the book, all layers oflate medieval Spanish society are represented through their lovers.
Fables andapologues are interspersed throughout the course of the main argument that constitute a collection of exempla. Likewise, you can findallegories, moralities, sermons, andsongs of the blind and ofGoliardic- type schoolchildren. Profane lyrical compositions (serranillas, often parodic, derived from thepastorelas) are also included alongside other religious ones, such ashymns andcouplets to the Virgin or Christ.
The narrative materials are based on theparody of medievalelegiac comedies in Latin from apseudo-Ovidian school setting, such asDe vetula andPamphilus, in which the author is the protagonist of amorous adventures that alternate with poems related to him or her. Pamphilus is also cited in the Book of Good Love as the basis for the episode of Don Melón and Doña Endrina. In addition to materials derived from Ovid’sArs Amatoria, it also parodies the liturgy of the canonical hours or epics and in combat ofCarnival ("Don Carnal") andLent ("Doña Cuaresma"). Other genres that can be found in the Book areplanhz, such as Trotaconventos' death, a character that constitutes the clearest precedent for La Celestina orsatires, such as those directed against female owners or the equalizing power of money; or fables, from the medievalaesopic tradition or pedagogical manuals, such as Facetus, which considers romantic education as part of human learning. Although Arabic sources have been proposed, current criticism favors the belief that The Book of Good Love descends from medieval clerical Latin literature.
There are three existingmanuscripts of the Book of Good Love, none of which are complete, whose divergences madeRamón Menéndez Pidal think that he could respond to two different redactions made by the author in different moments of his life:
The Book of Good Love is a varied and extensive composition of 1728stanzas, centering on the fictitious autobiography of Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita. Today three manuscripts of the work survive: the Toledo (T) and Gayoso (G) manuscripts originating from the fourteenth century, and the Salamanca (S) manuscript copied at the start of the fifteenth century by Alonso de Paradinas. All three manuscripts have various pages missing, which prevents a complete reading of the book, and the manuscripts vary extensively from each other due to the diversions of the authors. The work most commonly read today was suggested byRamón Menéndez Pidal in 1898 based on sections from all three manuscripts.
The title by which the work is known today was proposed by Menéndez Pidal in 1898, based on different passages from the book, especially those from frame 933b, whose firsthemistich reads “Good Love' said to the book.”
As for the date of writing, it varies according to the manuscript: in one, the author affirms that he finished it in 1330, and in another in 1343; this last date would be a revision of the 1330 version in which Juan Ruiz added new compositions.
The book is famous for its variety of:
The work is composed of the following:
The titleThe Book of Good Love is inferred from the text, and who or what Good Love may be is not revealed by the author.
The Book of Good Love explains how men must be careful about Love that can be Good (el buen amor) or Foolish (el loco amor). The Good Love is God's one and is preferred to the Foolish Love which only makes men sin. Juan Ruiz gives the reader a lot of examples to explain his theory and avoid Foolish Love in the name of the Good one.
Due to its heterogeneity, the intention of the work is ambiguous. At certain points, it honors devoted love, while at others, it speaks highly of the skill involved in carnal love.
Menéndez Pelayo was the first to point out theGoliardic character of the work, although he denied that there was any attack againstdogmas or insurrection against authority, which others later confirmed to be an attitude characteristic of Goliardish poetry.
Specialists have also discussed the possible didactic nature of the Book of Good Love. Authors such asJosé Amador de los Ríos,Leo Spitzer orMaría Rosa Lida de Malkiel defend didacticism as an inseparable part of the work. However, authors such asAmérico Castro andSánchez Albornoz deny it, and consider Juan Ruiz to be more cynical than moralistic and more hypocritical than pious. Juan Luis Alborg, in turn, analogizes the work to the way in whichCervantes used chivalric novels to shed his own irony and personal vision; similarly, Juan Luis Alborg asserts that "the Archpriest is contained within medieval didactic forms.” In this sense, the book can also be read as a parody of the epic genre.
His work reflects the multiculturalism of Toledo of his time. Among the various women he tries to make love to (the only case in which he has carnal relations occurs when the mountain-dweller "La Chata" assaults him, although the savage mountain-dwellers were characters of a highly typified literary genre) there is a Moor, and he boasts of his talent as a musician, composing music forAndalusian andJewish dance. Also during the battle between Don Carnal and Doña Cuaresma he travels to the “aljama” or town hall of Toledo, where the butchers and rabbis invite him to spend a "good day." María Rosa Lida de Malkiel wanted to see the influence of the genre of narrative in rhymed prose, the maqāmat, cultivated by several peninsular authors in Arabic and Hebrew during the XII-XIV centuries.
The book also contains a passage in which a Goliardish-type protest is presented against the position of Gil de Albornoz who intended to extend the papal doctrine of compulsorycelibacy to his diocese. This clashed with the Hispanic tradition of the barraganía or contract of coexistence of a priest with a woman, a custom more established in a multicultural territory such as the diocese of Toledo, once the source of the heresy of Elipando's adoptionism, generated by the coexistence between Jews, Muslims and Christians. This is expressed in the "Canticle of the clerics of Talavera,” where he angrily protests against the provisions of the archbishop against the barraganía in the archdiocese. Such a protest was the one that could lead to the prison on the part of the archbishop. This critical stance towards the high clergy, like the rest of the lighthearted and critical content of his book, makes it akin to Goliardish literature.
Daniel Eisenberg posited that "good love," for Juan Ruiz, meant love for the owner, the single woman, who was neither a virgin nor married. The "bad love" against which a spear breaks was the love of the "garzones" or bachelors. Instead of the unbearable young man (Don Hurón), one can choose that which the text below presents: the "small owner." While the intention of theLibro has typically been discussed in philological and poststructuralist terms as anars amoris, a doctrinal work, a parody, or a work that fashions the ambiguity of the linguistic sign, Juan Escourido contends that the poem's intention, anthropology, and legitimation are founded on an aesthetics of joy.
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